Bottling in-house provides Navarro Vineyards with flexible scheduling.

Let’s start with two definitions. Core competencies are the unique abilities a company develops that cannot be easily imitated. Non-core competencies are headaches you should probably outsource.

Owning or running a winery is supposedly the No. 1 “second career” choice of middle-aged executives, especially those who wear uncomfortable clothes to work in the steel and glass cages commonly known as traditional offices. Like well-dressed prisoners on furlough, office workers visit wineries on the weekends and imagine how magical it would be to top off barrels all day. Those of us in the business know the real story is a little different.